New Lobby, Patient Room Designs Unveiled for Sanford Fargo Medical Center

FARGO, N.D. – As construction continues on the structure of the new $494-million Sanford Fargo Medical Center, interior plans are also being developed for the facility’s design. The main lobby area and patient room designs are complete, giving the public a first glimpse of the facility’s interior. Additionally, construction on the elevator shaft nears completion.

The lobby area will cover 4,000 square feet and will vault to 44 feet at its highest point. This multilevel space features public seating on the first floor and surgery waiting areas on the second and third floors featuring views to the lobby below.

Collegiate gothic architectural design–Sanford’s chosen design for all its new builds–typically features a darker interior; however, the south facing lobby area’s gothic arches and dormers include large windows to allow the area to be flooded with natural light.

“Natural light can be such a powerful tool in the healing process and in promoting positive well-being of patients, staff and guests. We optimized the size and placement of the windows in the lobby’s design to allow for maximum light,” said Paul Richard, Sanford Medical Center Fargo president.

The lobby’s aesthetics will feature porcelain tile flooring, carpet and paneled wood on walls. The lobby will house reception services and a grand piano located in the entrance. Adjacent to the main lobby will be a gift shop, chapel and public dining areas. Three separate restaurants will be part of the space, with a large dining area featuring a stone fireplace. Each restaurant will have its own unique theme and feature comfort foods and exhibition cooking.

Labor, delivery and recovery rooms and surgery rooms will feature a family area, complete with sleeper sofa for overnight stays. A linen pass-through system similar to modern-day laundry shoots will be included to minimize patient disruption. Each room has large windows to maximize natural light, and the X-shaped design of the building will allow each room to have an unobstructed view.

The patient rooms are designed with flexibility in mind to adapt to changing services over time if needed. Each patient room, with the exception of the labor, delivery and recovery rooms, will be the same size to allow for smooth adjustments in the future as needed.

“The rooms’ aesthetics and design were each thoughtfully crafted. We chose soothing paint colors in each patient room,” said Richard. “We also wanted to have a unique and local design to the rooms, so native North Dakota flower graphics will be incorporated.”

The elevator shaft for the new medical center is also nearly finished giving the public an idea of the scale of the building. Its completion date is still on schedule for mid-August. The elevator shaft serves as the central point anchor for the building and spans the entire height of the medical center, which is 11 floors.

The medical center’s construction is on budget and on time to be completed in late 2016/early 2017. Due to the building’s size and complexity, services will take several months to fully move in to the new facility. The first patients will be seen in 2017.

Project Team:

• HKS, Inc. and JLG Architects–architect/designer
• Mortenson and Nor-Son Construction–construction managers
• Lightowler Johnson Associates, Inc.–civil engineer
• Northern Technologies, Inc.–soil engineer

Fun facts:

• There are more than 3,100 doors. Keys for this number of doors would fill a 5-foot diameter key chain.
• There is an estimated 1.5 million square feet of drywall or enough to cover the current Bison Sports Arena 14 times.
• There is an estimated 1.5 million pounds of ductwork in the facility, which is equal to the weight of a herd of 750 bison.
• The mechanical piping on the project is about 80 miles of piping, enough to stretch from Fargo to Grand Forks.
• There will be enough airflow in the building to fill 1 million balloons every minute.
• There is an anticipated 5.7 million linear feet of wire, enough to stretch from Fargo to Frisco, Texas.
• There is about one truck every five to seven minutes coming through the site. Staging and unloading of trucks is being controlled on the site to prevent backup or traffic delays on the street.
• Total project man hours are more than 156,000.

Images Source: http://www.sanfordhealth.org; Lobby image by Mortensen Construction.